Rybird

About Artist

Basic Information

Artist Statement

“I create to feel alive, I create because I feel alive.” This catch phrase that I use in tight places sums up my battle with alcoholism and depression. Having found myself in recovery over thirteen years ago, I had to begin anew as in taking baby steps. Feeling the pains of my past and present life, I escaped through this creativity. Then the creativity made me feel better, and had it's own reward, if only in the process of which I began to feel alive again and wanted more. So I felt this phrase expressed this process of need and nourishment that creativity afforded me.

My first “art” was that which was born and bred in me and nourished in my past, which is music. Creating electronica style music, I became proficient and progressed to amateur music videos to accompany this very music.
Yet the depression and sedentary ways of the computer were taking it's toll and out of desperation to overcome, I picked up the camera. Soon I saw the world through a new perspective. The ways of music and video lent well to manipulating photographs, of which were the nature around my home.
Soon I was exploring other image based creations, such as fractals and most recently 3d art.
While most 3d art is for gaming, I strive towards the aesthetic artsy side of this technology.

During this journey and the desire to share my work and to become inspired by others, I met like minded people. I have been shown the hands on physical world of art, albiet over the internet, I am now exploring pastels, sketches, some painting and even real clay sculpturing.

I am and always will consider myself a beginner and desire to meet more like minded people and to continue to learn and explore the world of art.

Resume

Author of Rybird Music www.rybird.com and Dabble Bird www.dabblebird.com
It was a big black square with dark purple writing, and I was excited, it was Christmas morning, 1972 and I was 11 years old. It said in wide raised letters, Master of Reality. Yes it was a Black Sabbath album and I was happy. I couldn't wait to put it on the turntable and crank it up. The heavy bass sounds and guitar rifts were something mysterious to me, sorta dark, as I was at the entrance to a whole new world of creativity waiting to be explored and explore it, I intended.
Up to the point my childhood was normal. I had piano lessons and was still taking them at this time. My Father, Vollie Brown who had grown up on Jimmy Rodgers and Hank Williams, showed me the various three chord patterns along with a few riffs before this turning point in my life.
I had a second present to open, it was The Yes Album, then I knew I had found the fantasy realm where wizards mastered musical instruments and communicated moods and ideas on a higher plane.
I wanted a part of this, I was a part of it. The Music was a part of me.
Then having older brothers to pre-discover music for me, I latched onto Emerson Lake and Palmer. The keyboard styles of Keith Emerson along with Rick Wakeman were my mentors and by some sort of listening osmosis I would bang around on a piano, imagining I was emulating some of this craft.
I longed for a synthesizer at 13, but only could afford a PAIA Gnome, which is a simple but noisy, synthesizer without a keyboard, It had a rhythm controller and I learned the basics of additive and subtractive synthesis while wearing out the ribbon controller that was used to modulate the sound.
Soon I met a guitar player in high school that was heavy into UFO and Michael Shencker. We immediately got along and started planning our own rock fantasy band, only it wasnt' a fantasy as we soon found a drummer, and I was happily assigned the bass guitar. We played the talent show at high school and lost, for the music they wanted was Disco, Yes the Saturday Night Fever was feverish at that moment.
I had completed three years of formal piano teaching, but the bass guitar was my staple.
Putting together bands, playing either originals or covers and then life separating us, it made it necessary to keep meeting new people and making new bands. Eventually life took a detour
and music took a leave of abscess, until I found recovery.

As the computing age was born, I was discovering music editors and loops on the file sharing sites. By 2006 I had produced my first album Grind and Polish, and pursued this direction in music, then progressed to creating amateur music videos for my own music. Video creation was a natural progression for me, but the large amount of work of a sedentary nature was fueling my depression and ill health. Out of desperation to overcome this depression and the lethargy that was gripping me, I purchased a camera and began to explore the immediate outdoors.

The photography slowly worked wonders with my depression and improving my health somewhat, I began to see the world in a different light, through the lens. My previous software experience lent well for me to learn photo editing, and I began to create art with my photographs of the birds and urban nature around my home. Sometimes I will even use a video editor or 3d editor, as I love to explore the virtues of software. Along the way I also discovered fractals, then 3d meshes and objects and found there is no limit to digital art. I embellished this digital art and created a nearly remarkable portfolio of digital art. Some of this is at Dabble Bird www.dabblebird.com and some is at Rybird Music, www.rybird.com of which both websites I designed and created on my own.

Along the way I met other photographers and like minded people and someone that would show me the hands on way, but over the internet. I am still a beginner but now doing pastels, sculpturing clay and even began painting with a brush.
While all this is still very new to me, I wanted to learn more about the world of art and chose to join the Northwest Artist's Directory to learn about the local art scene and perhaps meet like minded people.